The Miser is a 1668 five-act satirical comedy by French playwright Molière. The play was first performed in 1668 at the Palais Royal in a period when Molière's company was, on the one hand, under considerable establishment pressure to modify its output, but on the other hand, under the protection of Louis XIV himself. The Miser's plot, involving a rich moneylender called Harpagon, whose feisty children long to escape from his penny-pinching household and marry their respective lovers, is a comedy of manners to which the 17th-century French upper classes presumably objected. It is less savage, however, and somewhat less realistic than Molière's earlier play, Tartuffe, which attracted a storm of criticism on its first performance. The play is also notable for the way in which it sends up certain theatrical conventions. Many comedies from the Elizabethan period and onwards contain asides which are delivered by characters to the audience and which the other actors ignore. In The Miser, however, characters generally demand to know who exactly these asides are being delivered to.

主人公阿巴贡是个放高利贷的老鳏夫，他贪婪吝啬，爱钱如命，与儿女形成了尖锐的矛盾。他老怕别人算计他的钱，就把一万金币埋在花园里。他强迫女儿嫁给一个不要陪嫁的老头，又逼儿子娶个有钱的寡妇，还想不花钱把儿子的未婚妻娶到手。他发现自己埋下的钱丢了后，痛不欲生。巧合的是......